The comment stopped me cold. I was trying to figure in what universe that could be true.

Let's see. The mix includes the church, accusers, grand jury and pedophile priests. The media reports what's happening with investigations, lawsuits, payoffs by the church and the grand jury report, and, suddenly, it's the media's fault.

Sorry to say, but we have some really odd people breathing air on this planet.

But as William Shakespeare would say, "There's the rub," because truth or fiction can depend on the source.

When I started in the writing business, news came from newspapers, television and radio. For the most part, people believed it.

Gallup reports that trust and confidence in the media in America was highest in 1976 when 72 percent of people believed what they saw and read. What they were seeing and reading then was an awful lot about Vietnam and the Watergate scandal.

A lot of people may not have liked that news, but most believed it.

Here's Gallup's 2018 report: "Overall, U.S. adults estimate that 62 percent of the news they read in newspapers, see on television or hear on the radio is biased. They think the news media mostly provide accurate information, but still estimate that 44 percent of what they see is inaccurate.

"And they believe that more than a third of the news they see in these channels is misinformation -- false or inaccurate information that is presented as if it were true."

And then there is this: "Americans are even more critical of the news they see on social media. They believe 80 percent of it is biased, 64 percent is inaccurate and 65 percent is misinformation."

To which I say, "Amen."

I cannot count the number of times someone has posted something on social media that I find absurd. So I look it up, usually on Snopes.com, and discover it's not only absurd but just plain wrong.

So I tell them. Which doesn't make me popular with my social media "friends."

Frankly, I think a whole lot of people exist who don't know the difference between the professional mainstream media and bloggers and others who post on social media.

"I read it on the Internet" doesn't cut it. And they don't know that.

They also don't understand the difference between news and opinion.

I've seen petitions on social media from people who want a program called "The View" removed from the air because they don't like it.

From what I've seen of it - and I haven't seen much of it -- it doesn't claim to present anything other than the opinions of the women on the show and their guests.

Don't like it? Switch the channel. And don't confuse it with news.

Mix this lack of understanding with a person in the White House who insists what he doesn't like isn't true, and you have a recipe for widespread disbelief in the media.

The man tells lies. He tweets lies.

The Washington Post keeps track. As of Aug. 1, the man had made 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days.

If the mainstream media reports something, and he doesn't like it, he lies. And there are a whole lot of people out there who believe him.

Here is one simple example:

The man from the White House came to our state and said, "U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants."

In Florida, he put the number at six.

When the mainstream media checked, the company spokeswoman said if that were true, U.S. Steel would have announced it. It hasn't.

It is not the media's fault that the man in the White House is a liar. And the media would not be doing their job if they let him get away with it.